Many military aircraft are powered by gas turbine engines which emit infrared radiation from exposed hot metal parts and from their hot exhaust gas plumes and in military conflicts these aircraft are vulnerable to missles which seek and home on such infrared radiation in an effort to destroy the engine and its aircraft. Particularly in gas turbine engine powered helicopter aircraft, for example, it is necessary to provide suppression of infrared radiation under conditions of hover or relatively low flight speed where ram air is not available as a source of cooling air.
There have been numerous infrared radiation suppressors proposed previously; however, such previous suppresors are generally deficient because they either require air pumps, or the like, to provide cooling air at a substantial engine power loss or weight penalty, complex heat transfer panel designs, comparatively large installation space, or complex ducting making such previous suppressors impractical for many aircraft, particularly helicopter-type aircraft.
Accordingly, the need exists for a simple and economical apparatus for suppressing infrared radiation emitted from hot metal parts at the aft end of a gas turbine engine and from the exhaust gas plume thereof which overcomes the above-mentioned deficiencies.